Lever for the Economic Growth: Vocational and Technical Education Policies in Turkey”

Abstract

This research seeks to understand increasing concern on vocational and technical education in the national education policy agenda within a political economy framework. This agenda puts the intention of education as making the objects of education and the aims of labour market overlap. The content of education is much more associated with industrial needs and designed with quality and skills discourse. The increasing tendency of capital groups in the education sector is not surprising for neoliberal times then. The neoliberal education paradigm basically suggests an organic relationship between education and economics and this is welcomed by educational policy actors in Turkey. Especially, since 2000s one can observe the desire to restructure the vocational and technical education area. Vocational and technical education is formulated as a lever for further economic development. Under the influence of these structural circumstances, the hegemonic capacity of the vocational and technical education policy will be questioned regarding the interests of different policy actors. In addition, this question is worth to discuss as an aspect of neoliberal class project.